After sorting through my catalogs, business cards, product samples, order sheets, and visiting website after website this past weekend I believe I have nailed down my favorites from the NYC Gift Show.  Unfortunately none of my favorite favorites I can use in my shop, but I thought others out there on the Gift and Home Channel might want to know what cool new inventions I came across at my time at the show.

I will also report on the items I ordered this year for my store in case any museum or theatre gift shops are curious, but for the most part, I unfortunately did a lot of re-ordering from my favorites and best sellers. 

I want to focus on two products in this post.  My top two favorite "inventions" I discovered at the show, and they were both found in the Piers, almost right next to each other!  The first one is what you are seeing above in the image for this post, this great idea come from a company called YUBZ.  They create classic telephone hand sets to plug into your cell phone or computer!  When I saw this, I thought how genius!  I know many of my friends use their cells as their one and only main line, going without a home phone.  And I thought how much I hate it when I am on my cell for a long period of time; it gets hot and is uncomfortable.  Hooking one of these classic phone receivers up to my cell would solve the problem and be kind of cute!

If you're in the market for a new, cool invention to debut in your store, be the first ones to get this great product if it fits in your mix.  The company is fairly new, a little over a year and I think they are about to make a big splash in the technology and gift industry.

Next, was a company I found a few "doors" down from the YUBZ booth.  This company didn't at first catch my eye, but after my mother made me stop, I saw their genius-ness!  The company is called GoGaGa and they have a great line of satchels and laptop cases.  You may be thinking, ok boring moving on...but wait!  The genius part is in their patented strap.  The strap allows the user to re-disperse the weight of the bags contents throughout their shoulder and back.  Also, the strap's look is customizable, you can extend it to look a bit softer for females, or pull it up all the way for a more manly/professional look.  Either way, you still will feel the benefits of this strap.  How do I know?  Not only did I try one on in the booth, but I was lucky enough to walk away with one of their Urban Sherpa Straps.  Check them out for yourself, if you sell laptop bags, purses, or even diaper bags this strap would be great to add to your mix!

Trying really is believing so I know it's hard to get across the feeling online, but I can at least try and spread the good word!  I will bring more product finds next week, until then, if anyone else attended the NYC show and found something great, please SHARE!